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"Why is it improper? Because we hold hands in the dark? The queen does it"

"Nevare, surely if the queen does it, it cannot be improper" This, from Spink of all people

I took a breath, resolved to be calainstto take a god’s power to yourself Or at least, pretend to have such I’ve heard so in the dark, holding hands, listening for thumps and knocks and whispers Why do you think they hold the about thehtforward? All is od, Epiny, and we should set the superstition and trickery and nore theic will be no ods have passed away completely"

"I see And is that why you and Spink both do that little finger-wavy charo to mount your horses?"

I stared at her, astonished The "keep fast" chareant Duril when I first learned to saddle my own horse Before then, he or my father had made the charic that we had kept for ourselves I had once asked the sergeant where it had come from, and he had said, in an offhand way, that most likely we had learned it from the conquered Plainsmen Then he had mentioned that there had used to be other little charth to a flagging horse, but that they did not seem to work as well as they once had He suspected that all our iron and steel was the cause of theAnd then he added that it was probably not wise for a cavalla ic that we had learned fro native" At the ti to fully understand as meant by the phrase, other than that it was very bad So Epiny talking about that ic to me suddenly made me feel both exposed and ashalanced at Spink, expecting hihtfully, "Perhaps she has a point"

"She does not!" I retorted "Answer honestly, Epiny Don’t you think seances are an affront to the good god?"

"Why? Why should he care?"

I had no ready reply to Epiny’s question "It just see to me That’s all"

Spink turned to me, his hands palm up "Go back, Nevare Let’s talk about the "keep fast" charic we use And everyone says it works, when they say anything about it at all So either we are as ungodly as Epiny is for ta it"

Spink was taking her side again "Spink, you should know seances are a lot of nonsense Otherwise, ould there be all those rules about holding the able to ask questions during them, and all that silliness It’s to cover up the trickery, that’s all!"

"You seereat deal about them for one who has never taken part in one," Epiny observed sweetly

"My sisters went away for a spring week at a friend’s house When they returned, they spoke of holding a seance there, because a visiting cousin from Old Thares had told the plates and unseen bells and knocking on tabletops, so they all joined hands and sat in a circle in the dark and waited Nothing happened, though they scared the happened because there was no charlatan there toit!"

I think my irritation had daunted even Epiny, for she sounded subdued when she said, "There is a lotplates and mysterious knocks, Nevare I don’t doubt that there could be fakes and charlatans, but the seance I attended was real Very real and a bit frightening Things happened to s that no one could explain And Guide Porilet said that I had the same skill that she did, but was untrained Why do you think I was left here with Father this time? It was because I interfered with the trained medium and she could not summon the spirits to herself while I was there They all wanted to co me I could scarcely believe it myself at first I found all sorts of ways to deny it and explain it away But it wouldn’t stay gone"